Temple Of Saints - Excellent

Bells League Division One 11/01/2003

Saints 2 Ross County 0 League Table Here

Team : Main, Robbo, Forsyth, Marco, Murray, Maxwell, Paddy, Reilly, JR, Parker, Tommy
Subs : Cuthbert, Panther, Hay, Baxter, Dods

Well today was one of the big tests of the new hungry, fighting Saints style of the last few games and after the 90 minutes this afternoon you have to say that the team passed with flying colours after one of our best performances of the season. Countless corners (around 20), hitting the bar, two decent goals and some excellent football, especially in the first half made it a nice afternoon all round.

Only one change from the Gayfield win with Paddy getting a deserved starting jersey ahead of Hay who dropped to the bench. And with McCann away back to help the Leprechaun write his new contract, Panther stepped up to the subs bench. And with Bobby Williamson, Craig Levein, Ranger and Aberdeen all watching prospective signings from the stand as well as our favourite pundits managing to turn up it was set for a great game.

From the start (on an excellent pitch - as usual), Saints grabbed the bull (as in bullshitting Alex Smith) by the horns and camped out in their opponents half. In the 2nd minute some good build-up in the middle saw Marco feed the ball out left to Tommy whose run into the box ended up with a good shot going into the side netting. A minute later and JR fed the ball to Robbo on the right who got into the box and sent a low shot across the goal which was missed by all the forwards. Parker eventually got a shot in only for it to be blocked. Two minutes later Paddy was fouled on the right. Hartley put the free kick into the box. It was cleared to Reilly who saw his shot blocked. JR got to the rebound and put the ball back into the box for Maxwell whose header was held.

Parker won our first corner a few minutes later (that's Keigan Parker not Paddy Connolly, oh Gordon "Bloody know-it-all" Smith) but the inswinger was headed off the line. Robbo was on the end of some good build-up a minute later but his powerful low drive was just wide of the post. Parker was next up with a run and his cross was met by a great Paddy header which took a deflection off a defender and forced a backtracking Bullock to tip the ball over. Saints won another series of corners without really getting a decent shot in as Ross County played with 11 men in the box. Paddy and Tommy had shots blocked.

County were limited to no more than the odd attack up the park but Saints were able to comfortable deal with it and for a change showed a lot more pace and urgency about their play. The 13th minute saw Reilly take another corner to JR. He played the ball to Tommy who sent it through to Maxwell whose shot was tipped over. Three minutes after that and Parker and Reilly combined to send a great cross in from the left to Maxwell who was unmarked at the back post and managed to get a good header in which came back off the crossbar.

The momentum of Saints domination was broken up a couple of times as play was stopped for a couple of knocks with Paddy taking a hefty knee knock. A couple of minutes off the park for treatment saw him return but in the 29th minute he eventually limped off to be replaced by Chris Hay.

Within a minute though he helped us take the lead. Hislop had broken up the park and had a great shot well saved by Main. From the corner County had the ball in the net only for the goal to be ruled out for a foul on Main. We broke up the park. Tommy held the ball and played it into the middle to Marco who slipped it out wide to Robbo on the right. He got into the box and let rip a cracking low shot which Bullock failed to hold. With the ball rolling free Hay managed to just stretch enough to sclaff it into the net and make it 1-0.

Saints turned the pressure on after that forcing yet more corners. Marco and Tommy were causing chaos in the County defence. Tommy, Maxwell and Forsyth all had decent shots blocked or saved from the corners and Hay managed to miss a loose ball. And with 3 minutes left before the break another corner (no 8383 of the half) saw Tommy have a shot blocked and Forsyth shoot the rebound just wide. Hay had break up the park and a good shot deflected then Tommy forced Bullock into another great save.

At the other end the last minute of the half saw Main make a decent save from a corner. He played the ball to Tommy who ran the length of the pitch and cut the ball back to JR whose 25-yarder was saved but not held. Even then we forced another corner and from it the ball came to Tommy who tried a neat chip which went just over the bar.

Straight after the break we were on the attack again although County seemed to be more willing to push forward. But within a minute Hay had a good run down the left end in a decent shot across goal. Then a minute later a Main goal kick found Hay who sent a ball through for Keigan and Tommy and despite both looking onside, the linesman ruled them off.

County managed a decent shot which Main did well to tip over but in the 52nd minute Parker broke up the right and despite Hay missing the cutback, we won a corner. From it Forsyth's header was deflected over. But he didn't make a mistake from the resulting corner. Straight into the box and a glancing header from Flash put the ball in the net and made it 2-0.

After that the game seemed to die down a bit. County tried to get back into the attack and had a couple of chances but Saints were never under any real pressure. Hay had a good break and shot well saved to keep the attacks up. Dods replaced Maxwell (who'd apparently taken a knock despite playing well) with 25 minutes to go. We still made plenty of chances up front though. Tommy had a decent shot go across the goalmouth and Main made a good save from a Bayne shot. Dods had a header saved after JR put a free kick into the box and then after some great build up by Saints (to chants of "Ole" from the East Stand), Robbo had a cross from the right flicked out, it came to Reilly who from 12 yards out hit a cracking low shot which Bullock managed to get an arm out to tip wide despite only seeing the ball late.

There was still time for plenty of corners from Saints although they had little impact (guess what's on the training agenda this week). Baxter came on for Parker for the last 5 minutes to some effect but the tired legs in the Saints side (especially Hartley) showed through with the last real attempt being a Hay run on the right which ended up in another save by the impressive Bullock.

MoM for me was close - to be honest there wasn't really a weak link or performance in the Saints side. But in the end it was a close thing between Forsyth, Reilly and Tommy with Reilly just getting it for putting in his best performance of the season.

Keep this up for the rest of the season and we'll be happy.

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